Aabent Rum (Open Space) is a space for choreographic development curated by Aaben Dans.
Through a thorough selection process, Aaben Dans invites three choreographic artists to work in the theatre on their artistic work. There are no limits for what the artists can work with – they decide what makes sense for them, according to where they are in their respective career. Over the course of Aabent Rum, Aaben Dans’ role is that of an observer and guide for the choreographers.
In order for the artists to have a peaceful work environment, they are granted a fee as well as a smaller budget, which can also support their work. They can either choose to spend the money on getting a supervisor, hire a dancer, create a scenography, take a field trip, buy tickets for other shows, or in other way examine and dive into their artistic work.
The artists are selected according to the following criteria:
They should be at the beginning of their professional career, possess an artistic/aesthetic core and drive, create from the heart and live in Denmark.
The duration of the collaboration between the artists and Aaben Dans is one and a half years, during which the choreographers have periodic access to the stage. Furthermore, they should use each other to give and receive constructive feedback as well as use the artistic, organisational skills provided by the Aaben Dans staff.
In exchange, the choreographers are to provide artistic inspiration – for Aaben Dans, for the professional network and for the local audience with small-scale performances, interventions, workshops, symposiums, digital or other public events.
Within the space of Aaben Rum, the sky is the limit when it comes to the artistic development of choreography.
WHAT THE ARTISTS HAVE BEEN WORKING ON
2021:
Nanna Stigsdatter and Snorre Elvin
pour it
pour it is a riverine dance performance and stream of friendships and shorelines portraits. A piece that floats between ecosystems, lingers by bodies of water and dances with ever changing aspects of love.
pour it is an extension of the piece drivtømmer (eng. driftwood) from 2019 and continues the inquiry into intimacy, watery habitats and thresholds. The work circulates around transformations and portals – choreographic actions that serve as portals into other stages of being, the possibility of assuming the shape of the other and giving in to transformation.
pour it and drivtømmer are echoes of many years of friendship and dances.
Nanna and Snorre met at the Danish School for Performing Arts in 2011 and have been working together since, in a variety of constellations, one of which being the dance collective Danseatelier.
Please find more information about pour it here…
2019 – 2020:
Antoinette Helbing
I am working on my solo performance “The Laughing Game”. With the help and inspiration of Feldenkrais and various techniques of mediation, I define and examine the material of movement. I am interested in how these two techniques can nurture my choreographic work and help create a space, where the audience is drawn into their own bodies through my movement.
Georgia Kapodistria
As a participant at Aabent Rum, Georgia will focus on a subject, that is very close to her professional work. For the past couple of years, the term decolonisation has been at the core of her artistic and academic work and will also be the foundation for her residency at Aaben Dans.
Georgia will examine and (re)think the political connotations, that can be implied through choreographic works. From that perspective, she will examine the creation of choreography by using different schools of thought originating from the term decolonisation . She will be working on this in relation to the development of a solo performance (betwixt and between – see video on the top of the page) and a group dance performance (Staging a State).
Anna Lea Ourø og Amalia Kasakove
Since 2018 we have been working on a trilogy of works addressing how dance can hold a space for loss. Just ok is research that follows our latest performance Sure as its sibling piece. So far, Just ok has been researched in an old coastline bunker that served as protection against war and is now taken over by surrounding nature, and in a nonoperational iron mine in Sweden that ceased operation in the 1970’s. Both these sites operate in isolation and have a sense of remoteness and absence to them. These decaying sites have initiated the thinking through such words as zombie material. Since then we have continued the research of the piece at HAUT, at their festival Y Choreography and residency program Eksil, and as invited artists of Aabent Rum. The research addresses the grim prospects of the world; alongside personal losses, we are facing the largest displacement of people and the occurrence of natural disasters. Just ok speaks of zombies as ecological and political figures. The zombie works as a metaphor for the transitory state where we keep on living while we witness the erosion of our planet. It is a figure that helps us think through this living-dead material, considering the slippery border between when something is actually living and when dying. The research considers these prospects, the non-living and living-dead agents, and sees how it can shape its choreography. This tranced sequel will work in the form of hollowing and letting these (non-)living remains, ghosts and losses seep through the material.
Aabent Rum is part of the development strategy of Aaben Dans to secure a high artistic level, now and in the future. The development strategy will benefit performers, the theatre and the audience by examining the qualities of choreography as an art form.
The implementation of Aabent Rum is enabled by specific development funds granted by Teaterforliget in the spring of 2019.
The Meatlump is a newly established dance collective, by dancer and choreographer Julie Rasmussen (DK), Maren Fidje Bjørneseth (NO), Rickard Fredborg (SE). The trio works individually and collectively very broadly within the performance and dance field. The artist has each their own unique and profound way of approaching, embodying and expressing their artistry and creative ideas. Yet, still the ability to intertwine and merge to create new exciting hybrids within their collaborative work.
The performance” The Meatlump” is sprung out from another performance, UMWELT by Julie Rasmussen, as a short section where both Maren and Rickard also danced, which now serves as a starting point in creative process. The Meatlump has the potential to convey a powerful message of intimacy, vulnerability and our insatiable hunger for more. We are now further exploring and developing its physical capabilities and evolution and diving deep into its characteristics and psyche.
Katrien van der Velden is a dancer, choreographer and performing artist who graduated from The Danish National School of performing arts (Dance and Choreography) in 2020. She has a background in music and singing/voicework and her interests lie in cross-disciplinary collaborations and approaches to performing arts, working with dance, dramaturgical processes and voice work.
Her recent works focus among others on the sense of touch in relation to the existential need and feeling of belonging and on somatic and improvisational methods which integrate voice and body and allow opening up different states of consciousness and imagination.
Fabio Liberti, italian freelance choreographer and performer, graduated at Codarts (NL). He is the artistic director of his company MUOVI.
In his works, through an intense physical exploration of body possibilities and movement composition, he proposes issues that are connected to the study and understanding of human behavior, in connection to disciplines such as psychology, sociology and anthropology. Website https://www.fabio-liberti.com/
Fabio about his work within Aabent Rum: I will touch different aspects of my choreographic current activities: starting from developing my movement practice BAM-Body Activation through Movement, reaching out towards the local dance community, exploring choreographic ideas that are currently in progress, deepening the collaboration with the video designer Christofer Brekne started in the previous production and having a very first approach to new ideas. Overall it will be a time for development of my personal artistic growth and for planting new seeds.
ARCHIEVES
AFTERLAUGHTER
a bodily experience of force and relief
The female performer takes the viewer on a journey through the captivating world of laughter. She moves between different states and landscapes of laughter. Creating a relationship between her laughter and herself. The reasons for her laughing are not evident which gives an openness and a heightened focus on the physicality of laughter. Gently dissecting and decomposing laughter into its different qualities. Looking at laughter as a nature force, and not as a tool of communication, allows zooming in on the functions of laughter on the laughing body.
Laughter is filled with beauty, ambiguity and power when taking a closer and more detailed look. AFTERLAUGHTER allows the unseen details to get visible and connects to the irresistible and balancing powers of laughter. An invitation to dive into a condensed bodily experience of force and relief.
Credits:
Concept, choreography, performance: Antoinette Helbing
Director, camera, edit: Jan Vesala
Composer: Niels Bjerg
Costume: Inbal Lieblich
Supported by: Aaben Dans, BIRCA, Danish Arts Foundation
